Pasting in command line Vim doesn't have to suck (opens in new tab)

(userobsessed.net)

29 pointsjoefiorini15y ago31 comments

31 comments

26 comments · 9 top-level

graywh15y ago· 6 in thread

When the author says "command line Vim" he means "Vim running in a terminal emulator".

And pasting to terminal Vim doesn't suck if your Vim is configured to detect mouse clicks or interface with the system clipboard. Using the system paste shortcut (command- or ctrl-V) in insert mode is not the way to do it.

zosi15y ago

Unless, of course, the system clipboard is on a different machine than the running copy of Vim. This is useful advice, you really don't have to be so negative about it just because you aren't in a situation where it's applicable.

pyre15y ago

If your ssh session has X11 forwarding enabled, and the remote terminal Vim has +xclipboard support, then you can use the "+P keystroke to paste directly from the clipboard into Vim.

burgerbrain15y ago

  :set pastetoggle=<F5>

Wack F5, middle-click paste away.

joefioriniOP15y ago

Sure, that works great if you want to reach for the mouse.

4 more replies

joefioriniOP15y ago

Good point on my wording, thank you. I will change that to make it less confusing. As for middle-click, I really don't want to use the mouse. I don't use it for pasting anywhere else, so why would I change that for Vim?

Leynos15y ago

Although if you're using Vim over SSH from a Windows box, the :set paste command is useful to know.

yesbabyyes15y ago· 5 in thread

Vim can actually access the system clipboard (and, on Linux, the X clipboard). It's accessed as the * register (or + for the X clipboard). So, for instance:

    "*dd
    "*p

    "+yy
    "+P

And so on. Very convenient (and also much faster than Ctrl+V). On Ubuntu, this is only available in the Vim provided by vim-gnome or vim-gtk (even when running in a terminal).

pyre15y ago

It's only available when Vim is compiled with +xclipboard support. I actually found that on an older version of CentOS (v4, I don't know if it's different in newer versions), the 'vim' command and the 'gvim' command were separately compiled binaries so that 'vim' command didn't share the +xclipboard support. On Debian/Ubuntu, I believe they are the same binary.

yesbabyyes15y ago

Exactly. On my machine (Ubuntu 11.04) the binary (/usr/bin/vim.basic) provided by the vim package is compiled with -clipboard -xterm_clipboard, and the binary (/usr/bin/vim.gnome) provided by vim-gnome is compiled with +clipboard +xterm_clipboard.

sofal15y ago

Honest question: how is that faster than Ctrl+V? Is it because you don't need the mouse?

yesbabyyes15y ago

I'm sorry for the confusion. There are two ways it can be faster. The way you understood it, I guess, is in typing. The difference here is:

  i Ctrl v Esc

  (Shift) " * p

Where, on my keyboard, both " and * requires the shift key, but YMMV.

What I meant, though, is the actual input of text. When pasting with Ctrl+V, that's like one character at a time for Vim, and that's visible, so if you paste a large body of text you can actually see it scrolling past. When working with buffer commands, it works just any other internal Vim buffer operation, which is instantaneous.

Symmetry15y ago

Its not. You usually do most of your copying and pasting within vim so you can just use the normal past command, but it is annoying when you want to do something with the system clipboard.

bawatski15y ago· 3 in thread

... and I thought it was how to paste in vim commandline after :

sixtofour15y ago

How to paste in vim commandline after :

    <ESC>
    (normal mode)
    q:
    (fully vim editable window of :command line history)
    (edit one of the command lines, yank and put all you like)
    (or edit the new blank command line at the bottom)
    <ESC><ENTER>
    (to execute the current line, or)
    :q
    (to quit without executing)
    (normal mode)

Notice the symmetry of q: to get in, and :q to get out (if you don't execute).

q/ and q? to edit and execute search history.

[edit formatting]

cschneid15y ago

ctrl-r <register> pastes that register into your command.

So I often need to find "where is this method defined" across a large project.

    yw (yank word to get method into the " register)
    :Ack <ctrl-r>"  (ack plugin, paste that default " register)
    <enter> yay! I found it.

Alternately:

    /foo  (attempt to find foo in this file. Whoops, not there, where is it!).
    :Ack <ctrl-r>/  (last search is in the / register).
    There it is!

bawatski15y ago

wow! this is exactly what i was looking for. thank you.

mpobrien15y ago· 2 in thread

Another method I sometimes use for pasting large blocks of code:

    :r !cat
    (paste your stuff)
    ctrl - D

Doesn't require any switching between paste modes.

tzs15y ago

Nice idea, and you can replace cat if you need to clean up the paste:

    :r!perltidy
    (paste coworker's ugly perl code)
    ctrl-D

and you have nice looking code pasted.

iopuy15y ago

Interesting.... I see how it works, any other benefit to this approach?

bingaman15y ago· 1 in thread

On a mac, you can use :r !pbpaste

If you're ssh'd somewhere it's a different story. I've seen some things about sharing clipboards across shells, but I've never bothered to set it up.

Also, copy-pasta makes for bad code.

joefioriniOP15y ago

Thanks for the tip! I also learned you can do:

:a! <paste like normal> <C-c>

and that will paste with properly formatted text.

anurag15y ago

Vim has a built-in directive to toggle paste mode:

set pastetoggle=<F3>

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Toggle_auto-indenting_for_code_pas...

phaedrix15y ago

perhaps, I'm forgetting something, but these solutions seem overly complicated.

I just have this in my .vimrc, and pasting (with formatting), is as simple as copying text, going to vim and hitting 'p' in command mode.

  for middle-click (system) clipboard:
    :set clipboard=unnamed
  for ctrl-c (X11) clipboard:
    :set clipboard=unnamedplus

  couple caveats:
  * +xterm_clipboard
  * 'unnamedplus' is only for >= 7.3.74

see here for more info http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Accessing_the_system_clipboard

note: I used unnamedplus for a bit, but found it to be much less desirable than using the unnamed middle-click buffer...YMMV

hernan715y ago

You can also paste in "ex" mode.

ESC

Q --> to go to "ex" mode

i --> to start inserting

paste text here

. --> line containing a single period to exit "ex" insert mode

:vi --> to return to "vi" mode

...golfer, moi?

oinksoft15y ago

"Argh, how do I paste?!"

  :h paste

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

31 comments

26 comments · 9 top-level

graywh15y ago· 6 in thread

When the author says "command line Vim" he means "Vim running in a terminal emulator".

zosi15y ago

pyre15y ago

If your ssh session has X11 forwarding enabled, and the remote terminal Vim has +xclipboard support, then you can use the "+P keystroke to paste directly from the clipboard into Vim.

burgerbrain15y ago

  :set pastetoggle=<F5>

Wack F5, middle-click paste away.

joefioriniOP15y ago

Sure, that works great if you want to reach for the mouse.

4 more replies

joefioriniOP15y ago

Leynos15y ago

Although if you're using Vim over SSH from a Windows box, the :set paste command is useful to know.

yesbabyyes15y ago· 5 in thread

Vim can actually access the system clipboard (and, on Linux, the X clipboard). It's accessed as the * register (or + for the X clipboard). So, for instance:

    "*dd
    "*p

    "+yy
    "+P

And so on. Very convenient (and also much faster than Ctrl+V). On Ubuntu, this is only available in the Vim provided by vim-gnome or vim-gtk (even when running in a terminal).

pyre15y ago

yesbabyyes15y ago

sofal15y ago

Honest question: how is that faster than Ctrl+V? Is it because you don't need the mouse?

yesbabyyes15y ago

I'm sorry for the confusion. There are two ways it can be faster. The way you understood it, I guess, is in typing. The difference here is:

  i Ctrl v Esc

  (Shift) " * p

Where, on my keyboard, both " and * requires the shift key, but YMMV.

Symmetry15y ago

Its not. You usually do most of your copying and pasting within vim so you can just use the normal past command, but it is annoying when you want to do something with the system clipboard.

bawatski15y ago· 3 in thread

... and I thought it was how to paste in vim commandline after :

sixtofour15y ago

How to paste in vim commandline after :

    <ESC>
    (normal mode)
    q:
    (fully vim editable window of :command line history)
    (edit one of the command lines, yank and put all you like)
    (or edit the new blank command line at the bottom)
    <ESC><ENTER>
    (to execute the current line, or)
    :q
    (to quit without executing)
    (normal mode)

Notice the symmetry of q: to get in, and :q to get out (if you don't execute).

q/ and q? to edit and execute search history.

[edit formatting]

cschneid15y ago

ctrl-r <register> pastes that register into your command.

So I often need to find "where is this method defined" across a large project.

    yw (yank word to get method into the " register)
    :Ack <ctrl-r>"  (ack plugin, paste that default " register)
    <enter> yay! I found it.

Alternately:

    /foo  (attempt to find foo in this file. Whoops, not there, where is it!).
    :Ack <ctrl-r>/  (last search is in the / register).
    There it is!

bawatski15y ago

wow! this is exactly what i was looking for. thank you.

mpobrien15y ago· 2 in thread

Another method I sometimes use for pasting large blocks of code:

    :r !cat
    (paste your stuff)
    ctrl - D

Doesn't require any switching between paste modes.

tzs15y ago

Nice idea, and you can replace cat if you need to clean up the paste:

    :r!perltidy
    (paste coworker's ugly perl code)
    ctrl-D

and you have nice looking code pasted.

iopuy15y ago

Interesting.... I see how it works, any other benefit to this approach?

bingaman15y ago· 1 in thread

On a mac, you can use :r !pbpaste

If you're ssh'd somewhere it's a different story. I've seen some things about sharing clipboards across shells, but I've never bothered to set it up.

Also, copy-pasta makes for bad code.

joefioriniOP15y ago

Thanks for the tip! I also learned you can do:

:a! <paste like normal> <C-c>

and that will paste with properly formatted text.

anurag15y ago

Vim has a built-in directive to toggle paste mode:

set pastetoggle=<F3>

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Toggle_auto-indenting_for_code_pas...

phaedrix15y ago

perhaps, I'm forgetting something, but these solutions seem overly complicated.

I just have this in my .vimrc, and pasting (with formatting), is as simple as copying text, going to vim and hitting 'p' in command mode.

  for middle-click (system) clipboard:
    :set clipboard=unnamed
  for ctrl-c (X11) clipboard:
    :set clipboard=unnamedplus

  couple caveats:
  * +xterm_clipboard
  * 'unnamedplus' is only for >= 7.3.74

see here for more info http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Accessing_the_system_clipboard

note: I used unnamedplus for a bit, but found it to be much less desirable than using the unnamed middle-click buffer...YMMV

hernan715y ago

You can also paste in "ex" mode.

ESC

Q --> to go to "ex" mode

i --> to start inserting

paste text here

. --> line containing a single period to exit "ex" insert mode

:vi --> to return to "vi" mode

...golfer, moi?

oinksoft15y ago

"Argh, how do I paste?!"

  :h paste

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse